ABSTRACT
Before proceeding, it is well to point out that Locke no less than Hobbes held the view that in a civil society individuals have rights contingent upon acceptance of necessary constraints or what we have referred to as civic virtues. How did Locke approach the definition of such constraints? For Locke, as Charles Taylor says, we are to follow “the law
laid down by God, which he [Locke] also calls at times the Natural Law.”3 Moreover, this law, which suggests a rational order to our existence and which therefore can be known by rational individuals, represents God’s intention to secure to each of us certain basic, natural rights. With these rights, we are able, as individuals, to determine our own intentions and courses of conduct. But it must always be clear that the presence of basic rights, supported by natural law, places limits on what we can choose and how we can act.4 Indeed, in discussing the state of nature, as we do in Section II, Locke outlines the constraints on freedom, or those rules that individuals must observe during the course of pursuing their own self-defined interests. These constraints secure the rights of all citizens. In upholding these constraints, individuals can be said to be maintaining regard for the civic virtues that protect the rights and the basic liberty of each person.
